It looks like the weight-loss pill Xenical will be available over the counter under the name Alli. http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1587073,00.html
Has anyone had experience with Xenical or heard of others who have used it? How bad are the GI effects?
I understand that it should be used with diet and exercise and has adverse effects. I wouldn’t use it based on opinions expressed here, but I am curious about any info folks would like to share.
I’ve known people who have taken it and did loose weight under a doctors supervision. I think they also recommend taking some sort of vitamin when taking it.
If you are dieting and limit fat intake it’s probably helpful. The people that I’ve spoken with that had issues were the ones that took Xenecal and then ate a high fat content meal. You have to stick close to a bathroom in that case.
It’s not a long term fix, but sometimes people get motivated to keep going when they lose a few pounds.
I just heard a lengthy story and interview about this on NPR, and a doctor who has been precribing this was very polite about it, but apparently a lot of her patients had problems with…let’s be blunt…pooping their pants because they couldn’t get to a bathroom fast enough. One woman worked on an assembly line and had an accident at work because she can’t just get up and leave in a hurry. Even if they were eating low fat foods as they were supposed to, she said that sometimes there was more fat in the food than they realized, leading to accidents. Plus cramping. She said overall it wasn’t any more effective thatn diet and walking, and her patients were afraid to take it if they would be out of the house. Doesn’t sound like fun, even though this over the counter edition is half the dosage of the precription version.
Right, and if you’re already eating low-fat foods, who needs the pill? But I guess if it reinforces the behavior…? Explosive diarrhea could be a good motivation. :o
My wife had taken this and was warned of “anal leakage”. She had to always wear a pad. However, it did work and she was able to lose a lot of weight.
My sister’s experience:
"It stops you from absorbing grease in your intestine. Hence, you eat something greasy, you leave a nasty oil slick in the toilet. Plus, being liquid, it doesn’t always wait for you to expel it; bubbly toots are a regular occurrance.
Basically, it trains you NOT to eat anything greasy. You learn your lesson, right quick!
(btw, the grease is the colour of spaghetti sauce grease that stains tupperware)"
What I’ve heard about it was similar to what Ginger’s sister experienced. If you eat something with a lot of fat, you’ll pay for it when it reaches the other end!
Personally, though, the main thing that really concerns me about this pill is that there may be a risk of “pre-cancerous lesions” in the colon.
For some people, the “oil slick” effect may not be a bad thing. It might be the one way they can train themselves to stop eating bad foods (similar to how people who have gastric bypass surgery often welcome the “dumping syndrome” that results because the unpleasantness of it trains them to stop wanting to eat sugary food).
If you don’t mind my asking, is she still on it? Has she had any troubel maintaining the loss?
I’m wary of anything that trains you like that. Why not just stop eating fatty (wrote farty the first time, heh) foods?
Maybe this was why astronaut-girl had a Depends on.
I imagine these things would work. Your probably scared to death to eat.
This article notes that the OTC version is half the dose of the prescription version, plus the people who take the prescription version typically lose only (on average) 6 lbs more than those not on it. So you’re spending $15-25 per week to lose 3 lbs, and risking random explosive diarrhea to do so.
According to your article it helps people lose 50 percent more weight than dieting alone.
The people I know that took it lost a great deal of weight in conjunction with diet and exercise. I never heard the explosive diarrhea stories, but I usually don’t encourage people to share bathroom habits. In fact I sort of insist on it.
If dieting alone was so easy, everyone would be thin.
True, but the article also goes on to recommend that the dieter also exercise, and a few experts give very mixed opinions on efficacy, safety, and utility.
I wouldn’t take it while eating a meal that you don’t have accurate dietary information on - it’d be so easy to have a nasty accident.
I might buy some stock in Hane’s Her Way or Victoria’s Secret because this is going to be huge when the drug comes out. It’s currently extremely expensive and most insurance companies won’t cover it unless you have a health issue related to weight.
I’ll wait till a few hundred people here give it a try.
She lost about 40 pounds and was doing OK until other medical issues (unrelated to the medicine) meant that she had to stop taking it.
Lavenderviolet, this is so true! Not everybody experiences “dumping syndrome” after gastric bypass surgery (GBS), however. I had GBS and I’m really disappointed because I don’t dump, no matter how much sugar I eat. I am envious of other patients in my GBS support group who have the blessing of dumping because they have an important incentive to eat healthily. It’s possible to regain weight after surgery and the dumpers are less likely to lapse into their old bad eating habits than us non-dumpers.